Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion of the government in paying tribute to the life of the Hon. Gerard Leslie Hand and to associate the opposition with the remarks made by Senator Watt. Best known as Gerry, he was a product of working-class Australia, a proud member of the Labor left and a politician passionately driven to better people's lives. Gerry Hand, born on 30 June 1942, was the eldest of seven children to Les and Sheila Hand. Growing up in the south-west of Victoria in the Warrnambool area, as a young man, Gerry worked in the family tobacconist and as a driver, a milkman, a grass cutter and in a fish-and-chip shop. Then for eight years he was a textile worker and a shop steward with the Warrnambool woollen mill.

Gerry was a worker and a worker's man with a go-get-em attitude and, as it turned out, a natural talent for organising. In 1972, he established the South West Trades and Labour Council and later became secretary of the Warrnambool branch of the ALP and a researcher for Senator Cyril Primmer—all of which drove him to pursuing his own path in politics. After moving to Melbourne, Gerry used his experience as a springboard into his first battle for preselection in Wills. As Senator Watt has said, Gerry was somewhat up against it in that preselection battle. He was up against, as the Australian put it at the time, 'the most popular political personality in the country'—namely, Bob Hawke. It was right faction against left faction, and, actually quite remarkably, Hawke only defeated Hand by a relatively small margin. But it would only be two short years before Gerry Hand was preselected in the neighbouring seat of Melbourne, winning the seat in 1983 and holding it for almost 10 years until his retirement.

We know what made Gerry Hand tick, because he was a straight talker. He never shied away from espousing his left-wing political beliefs or asserting his principles. He took pride in being branded a socialist, and he openly acknowledged his very strong views about the redistribution of wealth. In his maiden speech to the House of Representatives, Gerry spoke with compassion about the working-class families and migrants who helped shape Australia, the suburbs, and the need to improve the quality of inner urban life. On show was a man who cared deeply about widowed women, the elderly, the unemployed, the homeless and those from various ethnic or Indigenous backgrounds. Gerry felt a calling to improve services for those Australians who needed the most, whom he saw in his words as having been thrown onto the economic scrap heap. An article in the Herald of June 1985 said:

Nobody who has spent more than a few minutes with Hand doubts the sincerity of what he is up to—working through the party to improve the lot of the poor and disadvantaged.

In government, the preselection rivalry between Hawke and Hand was set aside and, despite their differences, they grew very close. Gerry served in the Hawke and Keating governments dutifully, especially as the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and as the minister for immigration. He felt passionately about those portfolios and particularly about improving Indigenous lives. Angered by the deaths of Aboriginal people in custody and frustrated by the ineffectiveness of federal programs and funding, Gerry pushed forward with different reforms, including the 1989 establishment by the Hawke government of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

In his hometown and electorate, Gerry saw firsthand the positive impacts of Australia's managed migration program. It was for that reason that Gerry Hand, though very committed to immigration but also was clear in his sense of justice, adopted a hard stance against illegal migration, which he said 'blows to pieces a fair system'. Gerry oversaw new measures to deter, detect and deport illegal migrants, and he implemented Australia's system of mandatory detention, which remains integral to managing migration to this day. It's a sign that, despite all of his beliefs, there was a strong commitment there to systems operating with fairness and to recognising that sometimes governments need to do hard things to ensure those systems operate with that appropriate fairness and effectiveness.

It's right to say that for the portfolios that Gerry held he left an indelible mark, as did his commitment to his electorate. His eventual predecessor, Lindsay Tanner, would recall instances of Gerry leaving a significant factional meeting to go and help a local pensioner. It was this desire to help that was biggest in Gerry Hand's approach. In his valedictory address, Gerry said:

It is a great privilege to come here and to try to help people. You only get one shot at it. I have had my shot. I am very proud to have been here.

In those words, Gerry Hand expressed a sentiment felt by virtually all, I'm sure, who serve anywhere in this parliament, regardless of time, regardless of politics. And, with Gerry Hand, it is very clear that he lived up to that ambition, taking his shot and working to help people.

On behalf of the opposition, we thank Gerry Hand for his service and contribution to Australia and offer our deep condolences and sincere thanks to Gerry's family, friends and loved ones, and his Labor colleagues.

Question agreed to, honourable senators joining in a moment of silence.